


Recovery Isn't Always Easy

by maithcop



Category: The LEGO Movie (2014), The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
Genre: Crying, Gen, Hugging, Recovery, Trauma, gcbc is mentioned, rex has A Time, same with the space squad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-15
Packaged: 2020-03-05 16:29:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18832378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maithcop/pseuds/maithcop
Summary: Rex kind of regrets not disappearing in Undar. Hell, he regrets a lot of things. Rex realizes his 'no regrets' catchphrase was a big fat lie.





	Recovery Isn't Always Easy

  Three months. Three months, Rex has been counting. Three months since the wedding, since he saved himself from becoming the man he is today, since Emmet brought him home to live with him and Lucy in Syspocalypstar. 

  Rex had been… sulking, for lack of a better term. He sat outside on the double decker porch swing Emmet had built. Rex thought back to those old days, was he really that much of a dork?  _ A double decker porch swing? Seriously?  _ He hated to admit it, but it really was kinda comfortable. He sat there, watching the sunset, legs pulled up on the porch swing and against his chest, head on the ‘E+L’ pillow he made all those years- er, months ago.

  ‘4-EVA’, huh?

  How cheesy.

  Rex wondered how his raptors were doing. He wasn’t allowed to be near them anymore, and he was sure Bad Cop took them from his custody. He doesn’t know where they are now. Connor, Ripley, Rocky… the other one… what if they were missing their alpha just as he’s missing them? 

  The Rexcelsior on the other hand? No one knows where it went. The ‘space squad’, as Benny called it, had been out looking for it. Denny, Jenny, and Kenny have been out for weeks looking for it, leaving Benny and Lenny behind. All Rex knew is that Bad Cop took his damn keys for that, too. On top of all that, Rex had been given restraints on his wrists to disable his Master Breaker abilites. Again, issued by the cops.

  Rex wanted to break something.

  The screen door opened behind him. “Hey, Rex!” a voice called. Rex turned slightly to see Emmet approach him. “May I sit with you?” he asked.

  Rex nodded, “Go ahead, man.” Emmet did. He tried to keep the swing from moving too much as to not disturb Rex. The two sat in silence, and whenever Rex glanced at his younger counterpart, he saw that he must’ve simply come out to enjoy the sunset as well. 

  Emmet sighed, “Remember when we still lived in Bricksburg, we never really got to see this stuff.”

  Rex looked over at Emmet. “What do you mean?”

  “Sunsets. All the buildings in the city made it hard to see the sun when it set, remember? You’d have to drive out to the country to properly see it, and even then it wouldn’t be worth a forty-five minute trip.”

  Rex looked back at the horizon. The sun had almost been gone now. He did remember their life in Bricksburg, though it felt so far away. If Rex had been honest, he almost missed those good ol’ days. Almost.

  The two sat in silence once more, both men thinking about what to say.

  Emmet broke the silence with, “How have you been feeling lately, Rex?”

  Rex didn’t want to deal with this. “I’m fine.”

  “Have anything to talk about?”

  “No.”

  Emmet shrugged, “Alrighty. Well, just let me know if you need anything okay, buddy?”

  Rex didn’t say anything in response. 

  “... Is there… anything you wanna talk about?” Emmet asked.

  Emmet waited for another response and got nothing once more.

  “Rex?”

  Rex shoved his face into the pillow.

  “The silent treatment isn’t going to work on me. Just tell me what it is, Rex, I want to help you-”

  “I just want things to go back the way they used to be.” Rex mumbled.

  “Isn’t that what we’re working on, though? We’re trying to get your name changed, we’re trying to convince Bad Cop to give you back at least two of your raptors, and-”

  “Not that. I want things to go back to normal. You know… before I was stranded. Even before the invasion, before I found the Piece of Resistance, that damn thing.” Rex had moved his head from the pillow, but still hiding his face from Emmet. 

  Emmet sighed. He knew exactly how Rex felt. “Well… look on the bright side, Rex, if we didn’t find the Piece, you wouldn’t have had as many friends as we did before-”

  “You mean the friends that abandoned me and left me for dead in Undar?”

  “N-No, I-”

  “Look, Emmet, I appreciate your efforts and way of thinking or whatever, but I want you to know there’s no help for me. I’m a lost cause. Give it up, kid.”

  Rex sounded very small and very quiet then. Emmet didn’t want to just  _ give up  _ on him, it simply wasn’t an option. Rex was a broken man, a broken version of himself. He wanted to try and repair him.

  “No.” Emmet simply said.

  “What?” Rex lifted his head up.

  “I said no. I’m not going to give up on you. I know you’ve got a good heart still in you somewhere. I want to help you find it again.”

  “You don’t have to.”   
  “I  _ want _ to. Recovery isn’t always easy, Rex, but I want to be there for you every step of the way. I care about you.”

  Rex… sniffled. “You only care cause we’re the same-”   
  “Besides that. I care about you for  _ you.  _ Not for who you used to be.” Emmet said, putting his hand on Rex’s back. Rex was silent then, Emmet thinking he said the wrong thing. He sniffled again, turning his head to finally look at Emmet. 

  Rex was crying. Tears streamed down his face, smearing the ‘makeup’ he had put on his face. Emmet associated this face with many looks into the mirror to find his own crying face. Rex looked very vulnerable, fragile, and familiar. Emmet opened his mouth to say something but soon found his older self hugging him as hard as he can, face buried in his chest. Emmet paused and gently hugged Rex back. 

  Rex seemed to cry out years of trauma, years of abandonment, years of betrayal into Emmet’s chest. Emmet just rubbed his back, hoping to ease him just a little bit. 

  Eventually Rex moved from Emmet’s chest, wiping at his eyes. He noticed the mess he left on Emmet’s shirt, ink and tear stains all over it.

  “Oh, man… I’m sorry, Emmet.” Rex said, wiping the remaining makeup off his face.

  Emmet looked down at his shirt. “Eh, it’s no big deal. Do you feel any better?”   
  Rex sniffled again, “Kinda.”

  “That’s good,” Emmet smiled.

  “Promise me one thing, though.” Rex said, “Don’t tell anyone about this…”   
  “You got it, Rex.”

  Rex smiled back at him. “Also help me with my face.”

  Emmet chuckled, “You got it, Rex.”


End file.
